Personal computers and business computers are continually attacked by trojans, spyware, and adware, collectively referred to as “malware” or “spyware.” These types of programs generally act to gather information about a person or organization—often without the person or organization's knowledge. Some malware is highly malicious. Other malware is non-malicious but may cause issues with privacy or system performance. And yet other malware is actually beneficial or wanted by the user. Unless specified otherwise, “malware” as used herein refers to any of these programs that collects information about a person or an organization.
Software is presently available to detect and remove malware. But as it evolves, the software to detect and remove it must also evolve. Accordingly, current techniques and software for removing malware are not always satisfactory and will most certainly not be satisfactory in the future. Additionally, because some malware is actually valuable to a user, malware-detection software should, in some cases, be able to handle differences between wanted and unwanted malware.
Current malware removal software uses definitions of known malware to search for and remove files on a protected system. These definitions are often slow and cumbersome to create. Additionally, it is often difficult to initially locate the malware in order to create the definitions. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.